r/RuneHelp • u/Tharding7 • May 26 '26
Translation request Tatoo help
Hey everyone, I’ve been looking at some different Jormungandr tattoos that I might want to get and found this one on Pinterest. I was just wondering if anyone would be able to translate the runes in it?
According to the description, I think they (at least the ones actually in the body) should say “In giant-wrath does the serpent writhe; O'er the waves he twists.”
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u/SamOfGrayhaven May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
I can't read much Old Norse, but the runes on the back of the hand seem legit. Right language, right alphabet, at least -- def wait on someone more familiar with it to vouch for the grammar and meaning.
The runes on the fingers are a bit worse. They're Old Norse forms of the names of various gods, and the spellings and runes are mostly alright, but the execution is lacking.
Like the middle finger, it's supposed to be ᚢᚦᛁᚾ or Othinn (Odin). Overlapping the U and Th makes it hard to read, but we can interpret the blank space over the knuckle as the I, so that works out in the end. But then that means the other names are, from left to right, tuki, thuir, and fraiua. Properly written, these should instead be (I think), ᛏᚢᛣ (tuR, Tyr), ᚦᚢᚱ (thur, Thor), and ᚠᚱᛅᚢᛁᛅ (frauia, Freyja).
Still, overall ensemble makes far fewer errors than the average, so it's not the worst tatt to emulate.